Plaintiff turns accused?

Police arrested the plaintiff of an extortion case, filed against eight people including three policemen of Naruli outpost under Bogra Sadar Police Station, in a case for raping a seven-year-old child at Buzrukhbaria village in Sadar upazila early Wednesday.

“On August 20, the child was raped in an under-construction building near the house of accused Shah Alam at Buzrukhbaria village,” said Sonaton Chakroborty, additional superintendent of police (ASP, Sadar Circle) of Bogra.

“The next day, the victim's father went to the court and talked to a lawyer about lawsuit. But he was discouraged after hearing that it will require a lot of money. The same day, Shah Alam was fined Tk 30,000 in a family arbitration in presence of an assistant sub-inspector of Naruli outpost,” he said.

In his case statement, Shah Alam mentioned that mother of the said girl called him to their house for doing some sanitary work on August 18.

“Later, parents and brother of the girl confined me to a room and took a naked photo with the girl. Afterwards, the kid's brother asked me to give Tk 1 lakh. I gave Tk 20 thousand and promised to give the rest of the money.

“As I refused to give the money later, parents of the girl and the three police officials of Naruli outpost pressurised me to give Tk 80 thousand, threatening to arrest me in a rape case. Later my father sold our domestic animals and gave Tk 45 thousand to ASI Abdur Rashid on August 26,” Shah Alam said.

Asked about the alleged extortion by police, inspector Tariqul Islam of Nurali police outpost said, “You can know about this from the court hearing.”

After knowing about the extortion case, the girl's father filed a rape case against Shah Alam with the same court on Tuesday and the court asked the police to record the rape case.

Shah Alam's paternal cousin Shaheen said over phone, “Shah Alam has been framed in the rape case as he did not give demanded money to the police. After the case we went away from home to evade arrest.”

ASP Sotaton Chakraborty said, "Shah Alam admitted to police that he tried to seduce the child. Talking to a female police officer, the child said Shah Alam raped her more than once.”